“This is a large parish, and I don’t know everyone: by putting up the photos I thought someone might recognise someone they know who they could try to make stay in the Church,” priest Harm Schilder told AFP on Tuesday.

Many Catholics in the liberal Netherlands were shocked by Pope Benedict XVI’s Christmas call to “fight” gay marriage, which the Netherlands was the first country to legalise it in 2001.

Schilder said that he had received four requests to leave the Church around Christmas.

“This isn’t about pointing a finger, naming and shaming,” said Schilder, insisting that the plan would help the community pray for these people not to leave the Church and perhaps “persuade them to stay”.

Those wishing to leave must send a letter to the priest along with a photocopy of identity papers.

This is where Schilder gets the photos that will be displayed in the entrance hallway of the church in Tilburg in the south of the country.

If I were his bishop, I would waste no time in getting in touch with him to ask if he is going about this the right way.

Whilst some Reformed denominations and conservative Evangelical churches tell their members that they must apply to withdraw membership, this is not part of Catholic Church teaching. If it is, I trust that someone will write in to explain otherwise.

Normally, if relations are good or neutral between a priest and congregant, the latter may contact the pastor to indicate reasons for leaving. This is done more by way of courtesy than obligation.

If I were Fr Schilder, I would politely ask these people why they wish to leave. I would want to know if it was something I said or the way I presided over Mass or my sermon content. I would also ask about the person’s perception of the Church and if they were experiencing any personal conflicts with regard to faith.

In that way, the person is more likely to return to church — if not his, perhaps another — at some point in future.

Naming and shaming — even if Schilder denies that’s what it is — is the surest way to drive people out of church for good.

a report was published by Wim Deetman, a former Dutch minister, detailing widespread child abuse within the Catholic Church in Holland. 1,800 instances of abuse “by clergy or volunteers within Dutch Catholic dioceses” were reported to have occurred since 1945.[6] In March 2012, however, it was revealed that cases of 10 children being chemically castrated after reporting being sexually abused to the police had been left out.[6] It also emerged that in 1956 former prime minister Victor Marijnen, then chairman of a children’s home in Gelderland, had covered up the sexual abuse of children. According to the Telegraph newspaper, he “intervened to have prison sentences dropped against several priests convicted of abusing children.”[6] The factuality of these claims is unclear, though.

It is also thought that as more people come out of the closet revealing their sexual orientation more families have become empathetic towards same-sex relationships and less well-disposed to Church teaching on the matter, regardless of what the New Testament says (e.g. Jude).

According to the priest – known for the conflict over the early ringing of the bells of his church – it is a way to get the whole community ‘involved in the problem. ” “As a pastor, I am far from the type of people who unsubscribe. I usually call, but then the position still pretty final. Maybe it could happen through acquaintances or anyone who manages to persuade them.”

Comments to the article focussed on violation of privacy with the name and photo policy. Others pointed to the ‘rudeness’ of the Catholic Church.

Another article from the same publication — ‘Angry reactions to Tilburg pastor — phone keeps ringing’ — shows a photo of him being interviewed and features an audio of his statements to Brabant’s Radio 1. The article says that ‘responses have been flowing in from around the nation’ and that

in any case, his secretary has been busy: ‘The phone keeps ringing. I refer everyone to the priest’.

I went away for a few hours whilst writing this to reflect more on this incredible story, unusual for Western Catholicism as it would be for mainline Protestantism.

First, Fr Schilder is undoubtedly keen to retain his congregation and, let’s not forget, he is blessed with a large parish at such a young age.

Second, it is his pastoral responsibility to invite those courteous enough to send him letters for an appointment or a telephone call to see if he can help or clarify the Church’s position on various matters. He could also make it clear that his door and that of the church are always open to them when they decide to return. Notice how many Catholics and Protestants slam the door on sensitive matters? There are many more doorslammers among us than there should be.

Third, any discreet withdrawal of membership has nothing to do with anyone else in the congregation. Schilder may be a conduit between them and God, but, in the final analysis, he has no business posting names and photographs of those leaving, especially if he is in danger of violating privacy laws. Other congregants will know some of these people and their reasons for withdrawing their participation in church. They can fervently pray for them. As for Schilder, he can offer a general prayer at Mass — no names — for their return to the fold. It might then be a matter of weeks, months, years or, perhaps, never.

This is why the notion of Calvinist predestination, as taken from the New Testament, makes so much sense! This is a perfect illustration of it.

Here are a few related Bible verses on the situation:

Matthew 18:15-20 — note the necessity for witnesses before public condemnation of a private matter. Jesus said:

15 “If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. 16But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. 17If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. 18Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. 19Again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. 20For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.”

37 All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. 38For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me. 39And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day.

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6 comments

Heck, I am all for good record keeping and providing ‘members’ with what was written on the packet, but this fellow goes a step in the wrong direction.

Were he putting up the names and photos of Priests, Bishops and lay-folk engaged in Church work who were disregarding Doctrine and the Majesty of the Faith, kow-towing to secular forces or ‘being inclusive’ of people and issues directly contrary to Church Teaching, or even those who were clearly abusing (sexually or otherwise) their congregations or any individual within it, then I could understand.

But I don’t see him doing that.

Is he, by the way?

People are mobile. Some people leave a parish for quite legitimate reasons that have little or nothing to do with the Church or people in the parish.

Some are led away and astray by ol’ Beelzebub hisself and can do without being jeered, tarred and feathered. A bit of compassion by the shepherd for sheep taken by the wolves would not go unremarked.

I do not think he’s publicising any Church discipline cases. At least the articles didn’t read that way. Not sure putting names and piccies on a bulletin board is a good idea there, either. In a well-functioning congregation, church discipline is normally done quietly. I’m thinking of those where a pastor (or in the case of Protestants, elders, where applicable) ask those guilty of serious sin to not receive Communion or stay away for a period of time to keep the church pure. Generally, it’s a private matter. Only a dysfunctional pastor would make it public. The idea is to reconcile the congregant(s) in question with our Lord’s teachings and the Church.

Agree on the mobility issue and on ‘ol’ Beelzebub himself’. Compassion in this case, as you say, would go a very long way.

What I find ironic is that this priest actually admits he doesn’t know most of his congregation. (He’s lucky it’s so large. It might not be soon.) I have found from personal experience going back 40 years that Catholic priests never have time to ring up and ask if they can stop by to say hello. They’re always so ‘busy’. By contrast, Anglican vicars and other Protestant pastors make the rounds at least once a year, sometimes more often. Mention a family name and they will know them off the top of their head.

In my neck of the woods, there is one parish priest for an entire clutch of what pass for parishes. We had just one new priest ‘made’ this year and he was from somewhere in Africa. It is no surprise that they (he) doesn’t do the rounds of houses. Maybe the Catholics ought to take a leaf from the Book of Mormon.

When I was a lad however, my parish priest knew everyone on the rolls by name and almost by face. He would greet me in the street, for instance, but call me by my brother’s name. (Should I report this as abuse, I wonder. It didn’t do my self-esteem any good!). God knows what he called my brother.

I’m intrigued — what is the leaf to be pulled from the Book of Mormon?

I can understand priests being busy when they are in charge of area churches, but that does not seem to be the case in the Dutch story. Anyway, that doesn’t stop Protestants — with wives and children — meeting their flock.

Not sure why the new African priest wouldn’t make the rounds?

Re the priest calling you by the wrong name. My former vicar used to do that, too. Oh well, at least he had the family name correct. ;)